TRAINING WORKSHOP ON THE DUS OF NEWLY RELEASED TOMATO VARIETIES AT CSIR-CRI, KWADASO – KUMASI
A follow-up training was organized for breeders, seed scientists, seed inspectors and private seed companies from the Ashanti, Bono and Greater Accra regions on the Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) for the newly released open pollinated tomato varieties by the CSIR-Crops Research Institute.
The training aimed to build the capacity of Ghanaian seed inspectors carrying out their mandate of ensuring the production of quality seeds for all classes of seeds (Breeder, Foundation and Certified) and covered the flowering and fruiting stages of the tomato plant. This is very necessary to offer the seed Inspectors the knowledge and skills to identify and distinguish different tomato varieties in the field during seed production and field inspection.
Participants were also trained on carrying out tomato crosses and seed extraction.
The CSIR – Crops Research Institute, is the first institute to release open- pollinated tomato varieties in Ghana. This is part of the efforts to make Ghana self-sufficient in tomato production for food and nutritional security. The two varieties CRI-KOPIA and CRI-Kwabena Kwabena are expected to bridge the gap in Ghana’s tomato import and reduce the import bill drastically.
At the end of the training, a cop variety licensing agreement was signed with a private seed company to ensure that quality certified seeds of these two varieties are produced and made readily available to farmers across the country.
